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Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

The U.S. Aids and Abets War Crimes in the Philippines

Marjorie Cohn Truthdig
People and groups have been labeled terrorists by the Philippine government, the U.S. government and other countries at the behest of the U.S. government. The Philippine government engages in - red tagging - political vilification. Targets are frequently human rights activists and advocates, political opponents, community organizers or groups struggling for national liberation. Those targeted for assassination are placed on the order of battle list.

Tidbits - July 23, 2015 - #BlackLivesMatter and Bernie Sanders; Police Violence & Racism; Serena Williams; Rosa Luxemburg Conference; more...

Portside
Reader Comments: #BlackLivesMatter and Bernie Sanders; The Value of Protest; US Cited for Police Violence, Racism; Private Prisons; Euro Agreement and Greece; Urban Renewal and Public Space; Announcement: Rosa Luxemburg Conference - New Takes on a Longtime Classic - New York - August 21 - 22 (Moderator's Note - There will be no Tidbits for the next three weeks)

Guantánamo Closure Remains Elusive

Jennifer Fenton Al Jazeera
The status of the controversial facility, along with its inhabitants, remains mired in delays, appeals and political dramas that make shutting the prison increasingly difficult to imagine.

Between the World and Me: 10,000 Years From Tomorrow

James Forman Jr. The Atlantic
The permanence of racial injustice makes the struggle for the future necessary today, says James Forman Jr. Over the next few weeks, The Atlantic will be publishing a series of responses to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. This is the first in a series. Readers are invited to send their own responses to hello@theatlantic.com, to follow along on Twitter at #BTWAM, or to read other responses to the book from Atlantic readers and contributors.

Why Hillary Clinton and Her Rivals Are Struggling to Grasp Black Lives Matter

Wesley Lowery and David Weigel The Washington Post
The rise of Black Lives Matter has presented opportunities for Clinton and her opponents, who are seeking to energize black voters to build on the multiethnic coalitions that twice elected Barack Obama. But the candidates have struggled to tap into a movement that has proven itself to be unpredictable and fiercely independent.

The Death of Sandra Bland and My Fear of Driving While Black

Danielle C. Belton The Root
For years I’ve battled a driving anxiety. I want to get over it, but the mysterious death of Sandra Bland after a routine traffic stop in Texas reminds me that in black women’s lives, safety is an illusion.

Castro: Next Week the ‘Long and Complex’ Task of Normalizing Relations with the U.S. Begins

Mimi Whitefield Miami Herald
“A new stage will begin, long and complex, on the road toward normalization, which will require the will to find solutions to problems that have accumulated over more than five decades and hurt ties between our nations and peoples,” Castro said in remarks published on the state-run website Cubadebate. Cuba is trying to forge new ties with the United States “different from those of our entire common history,” Castro said.

White House Conference on Aging Emphasizes Private-Sector Solutions for Elderly

Paul Kleyman New America Media
The goal of strengthening Social Security was only one of the prime liberal issues barely audible from the East Room stage at the July 13 conference. But there was an undercurrent of concern over the prominence of commercial interests on the day’s agenda. Liberal leaders on Social Security have expressed frustration at the president’s “neglect” of calls to increase benefits for the most vulnerable seniors, especially ethnic elders and women.

A Radical Vatican?

Naomi Klein The New Yorker
I respond that I am not here to broker a merger between the secular climate movement and the Vatican. However, if Pope Francis is correct that responding to climate change requires fundamental changes to our economic model—and I think he is correct—then it will take an extraordinarily broad-based movement to demand those changes, one capable of navigating political disagreements.

The Value of Protest

Tim DeChristopher Tim DeChristopher
The value for me personally was in what the protest exposed in Bernie Sanders, and by extension, myself. When asked directly about white supremacy and police violence against people of color, Sanders responded by talking about fixing the economic system and providing more jobs. But the BLM protestors chanted “Say her name!” in reference to Sandra Bland because Bland’s particularity demonstrates that increased economic opportunities alone will not solve the problem.
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